A song about Drake’s butt might be a real breakthrough for AI art

These viral videos do not betray anxieties over AI; rather they layer more human expression over music created by just one man. It’s been a dream come true for 39-year-old comedian Willonius Hatcher, who wrote the song’s lyrics and had them performed by prompting AI software to compose music based on 1970s soul. The lyric’s positivity about butt lift procedures (“These yams deserve a trophy,” “Got the best BBL in history”) only compound its absurdity. This isn’t even about dissing Drake anymore — it’s become a planet-wide celebration of one man’s alleged butt-related surgery, and the positivity was intentional.

“It was made with love,” said Hatcher, who is in Los Angeles this week to shoot a music video for the song. “It’s not coming from a mean-spirited place, somebody else could’ve taken ‘BBL Drizzy’ and do a whole other thing on it. I intentionally didn’t have any cuss words in it just to make it something that could really bring people together. … People responded, and that’s really what matters.”

The song was popularized by rap producer Metro Boomin, whose March album with rapper Future kicked off the recent, high-profile beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Rick Ross joined in on attacking Drake and alleged the Canadian artist got cosmetic surgery. Hatcher thought the phrase “BBL Drizzy” was funny, wrote some lyrics down and ran them through an AI prompt engineering program, he said. Hatcher produced several versions of “BBL Drizzy” in a variety of genres before settling on the one Metro later sampled and flipped as a diss.

Hatcher is no stranger to viral fame. In fact, his work has cropped up across the internet for decades. His first big internet hit was “Crank Dat Homeless Man,” a very 2007 YouTube music video parody of Soulja Boy’s classic hit. For years Hatcher has tried to break into entertainment through comedy and music. During the pandemic, he found interest in screenwriting and joined a fellowship with Black Boy Writes Media. After finishing the program in 2022, he was ready to pitch scripts, but then the writers strike happened and the doors closed.

“There were no meetings, so I tried to write some scripts and put them up on Instagram, but by then it was almost no point,” Hatcher said.

Hatcher isn’t just a comedian and writer, he’s also an obsessive tech enthusiast. Later in 2022, ChatGPT debuted and immediately caught Hatcher’s interest.

“I became obsessive about these tools,” Hatcher said. “I remember being conflicted because part of the strike was against AI usage. I was just like man, let me roll the dice and see what happens.”

Hatcher leaned in heavy on experimenting with AI tools. He’s created more than 30,000 images on Midjourney, he said, and generated concept movie trailers for his old scripts, like one for his story “The Lickback Renaissance,” about a scientist in 1920s Harlem discovering mysterious elements that defy time and space. His work started to catch some eyes, and WIRED Magazine published a story in March that called him “the filmmaker who says AI is reparations.”

“It’s like food. If you create food with love, it just tastes different,” Hatcher said. “If you create AI with love and the right intentions, it’s going resonate through that. It’s an extension of you. If you make the AI do malicious things and hurt people, you’re going to feel that as well. … You are the energy you put out.”

Hatcher views AI as an equalizer, since he doesn’t have the financial backing and resources to make his ideas a reality. AI work helped him create at the speed of an internet meme.

“If I had to make ‘BBL Drizzy’ the traditional way, I would need to find a ’70s soul singer, some musicians, find a studio and book some time, and by the time we got to mixing, I would’ve completely missed the moment,” Hatcher said. “It levels the playing field for creatives, especially with the limitations in life we have as artists or business owners. It allows me to be a much better version of myself.”

All this attention is happening as Hatcher is attending AI and comedy festivals in Los Angeles. Nobody recognized Hatcher at the Netflix Is A Joke Fest, but during the closing performances at center stage, a saxophone player performed “BBL Drizzy.” It’s barely his song anymore, obscured by the thousands of creatives who have remixed it.

Hatcher agrees that there are dangers in using AI, but he views it as a tool that reflects the people using it.

“It was made with love. The same way you’re smiling at me, it’s the way I was smiling when I made it. You’re just a reflection of me,” Hatcher said. “Start with yourself, start with your community, and eventually the whole world will get on that.”